The rules governing "gifts" to public officials and candidates in Pennsylvania are ridiculous, and legislation has been introduced that would tighten the rules and end such nauseating practices.

My H.B. 855 would prohibit officials and candidates from accepting any gift valued at more than $50 and any form of hospitality, including transportation and lodging, whose value exceeds $500 a year.

Headlines and history prove that simply reporting the receipt of such gifts is insufficient.

Also falling short is the Governor's Code of Conduct, issued 33 years ago by Gov. Richard Thornburgh, which banned anyone in the executive branch from accepting gifts.

Yet, our governor and his wife this year disclosed accepting gifts, including orchestra and professional sports tickets and private jet travel, worth more than $11,000 over a two-year period, from lobbyists and business executives with interests in state policy.

House Bill 855 has sat in the House State Government Committee for more than three months, and I'm not optimistic about its fate, despite the growing perception of pervasive corruption in Pennsylvania.

In April, an amendment that would have required disclosure of campaign contributions made within two years of a bid submitted on a state contract was defeated. Only three House Republicans joined Democrats on the amendment to H.B. 201.

The "simple solutions" exist, including a gift ban and transparency on recent campaign contributions. Sadly, the willpower to fix the problems remains lacking.

TINA DAVIS

STATE REPRESENTATIVE,

D-141, BUCKS COUNTY

Don't ruin view with huge towers

Editor: On this July 4 weekend, we celebrate our freedoms, among them voice to protest. Lake Wallenpaupack is alive with holiday makers enjoying the bucolic setting. Few know of PPL's proposed Northeast/Pocono Reliability Project, which will scar the area.

Please let PPL and the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission know that placing 230kv high-tension power lines on 174-foot-tall towers with a 150-foot clear-cut corridor underneath, in such close proximity to Lake Wallenpaupack, is not without opposition. (In the proposed siting, at some points, the towers are within 1,500 feet of the shoreline.)

Take a ride down formerly beauteous Hoadley's Road to witness the initial stages of this rape of the land.

When your children look back at pictures of Lake Wallenpaupack prior to this project, you can say you remember when towers did not mar the landscape. While Martin's Cove and areas of Ledgedale will be most directly impacted, fishermen, boaters, campers, property owners, all will be treated to these monstrous towers invading the lake.

Power updating is necessary and towers are inevitable. But they don't have to be on the doorstep of such a popular tourist destination and tax cow. We are short-sighted in so many ways. Don't let this be one of them.

At www.pplreliablepower.com/northeast-pocono, type in "Martin's Cove, Lakeville, PA" in the Interactive Project Map. Zoom in to see how this proposed line juts toward the lake.

Editor: Hey, Scrantonians! Have you gotten the message yet? The public employee unions are not your friend. In fact they, as their lawyer Thomas Jennings has alluded to in the past, have not given up on producing blood from the stone.

Once they emasculated the Recovery Plan, it was open season on recouping what they felt were losses they incurred since the defeat of Jimmy Connors.

At the same time we are scratching for money to pay the last outrageous award, they are looking for yet another. The state is attempting to reduce an already untenable pension burden while our mercenary unions are trying to make it even more so. What part of "distressed" don't they understand? Perhaps we're using the wrong word. Would "bankrupt" be more appropriate?

Property owners are guaranteed at least a 48 percent city tax increase next year on top of the 22 percent we experienced this year. Even that extreme hike wouldn't make a dent in what we owe the unions.

I'm dreading the day when my home appears in the paper's sheriff's sale list. Next I'll appear on the street.

We no longer have what we farcically call "public servants." We are the servants, and they our masters.

It's time to end the "recovery" game and admit we won't, now or ever.

Let the state take us over as they have Harrisburg. Maybe they will have more luck dealing with the unions than we or the PEL do.

EARL BAILEY

SCRANTON

Uplifting lift

Editor: What a Fourth of July. No picnic, no music, no parade, but I am used to it because I am handicapped and move around in an electric scooter. That is, when it does not stop dead on the curb on Lackawanna Avenue.

I call my friends and get no answer. It is a holiday and downtown streets are deserted. Twenty minutes go by and I am still stuck, unable to move when a young man, tall and strong, walks toward me. He is my only chance and, embarrassed, I ask him if he has a car, if he could load my scooter in it, and take me back to the Mulberry Tower, my residence. I did not know I could be so bold.

No problem. He calls to a young woman from the other side of the avenue, and together they load the monster on his back seat. En route he tells me that his dad built the Mulberry Tower. Maybe he is smiling at his son right now.

We arrive. It is not easy to unload by himself and in the process he hurts his leg. Embarrassed again I ask him how I can thank him enough. "Just say a prayer for me" and he disappears. I forget to ask his name.

So, my young savior, I hope you recognize yourself in this letter. Know that you gave me my picnic, my music, and my parade, and I salute you as a true American.

SIMONE KIVEN

SCRANTON

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